Stellaris is a very interesting 4x and Strategy game. To imagine Stellaris, imagine Sid Meier's Civilization V in space, but real-time strategy, with basically every sci-fi trope mixed together and with alot more flavour. I personally enjoy Stellaris.

I enjoy Stellaris because:

- Flavour: From anomalies to random events, Stellaris has great, exciting flavour that makes the game very enjoyable. Leviathans and Distant Stars DLC add even more flavour.

- Customisation: In Stellaris, your species is based on cosmetic appearance (more portraits available through the humanoids and plaintoids species packs), traits such as being industrious, intelliegent, wasteful, etc and on climate preference (do you like deserts, earth-like worlds, icy-balls of cold, etc). Your empire is based upon governing ethics such as pacifism-militarism, egalitarianism-authoritarian, xenophobe-xenophile, as well as having different forms of government such as democracy, dictatorship or oligarchy. Additionally, empires have civics, which allow for further customisation. With the Utopia DLC, hiveminds are unlocked, allowing for a very different playthough and with the Synthetic Dawn DLC, machine empires similar to Skynet, paperclip maximisers, robots that aim to pleasure organics.

- Early game: Full of exploration, the early game is many players favourite as your empire quickly goes from a one-planet state to a much larger empire. The early game is full of various events as your empire grows.

- Mid game: Full of war as unclaimed territory begins to run out and hostilities begin. Wormholes allow for connection from oneside of the galaxy to the other, changing the politcal landscape. With the Apocalypse DLC, expect a Great Khan to begin going all Genghis Khan on the galaxy.

- Late game: Full of interesting developments. Megastructures (Utopia DLC) such as Niven's Ringworlds and Dyson spheres begin to be built, Ascension paths (Utopia DLC) bring your empire to greater heights such as through becoming psionic beings, Fallen empires that once ruled the galaxy but then collapsed are now vying to retake the galaxy, with you in it (Leviathans DLC: and may go to war against one another in a War in Heaven). New rare technologies are discovered and some empires may undertake a project to build a colossus aka Death Star (Apocalypse DLC).

- Galactic Terrain: While the 2.0 update may have upset some players, I believe it was very beneficial to the game. 2.0 changed the galactic map so that stars are interconnected by hyperlanes, which form connections between galaxy arms and also chokepoints. These chokepoints allow for strong defense through powerful starbases with many defensive platforms. Also, some systems such as pulsars, blackholes and star systems in nebulas also have special tactical and strategic value. There are also natural wormholes which are travellable through via a mid-game tech that allow for travel from one side of the galaxy to the other and Stargates that allow for instantaneous travel from one to another through a gate network, greatly interconnecting the galaxy.

- Dev Support: While Stellaris may have some bugs, the developers are actively working on sorting them out. The developers most likely plan to support the game for at least another five years, making it a long lasting investment. New content will continually be added to the game through both free updates and paid DLC.

- God Emperor K'Reel reigns supreme over the xeno scum.

- Well supported multiplayer and singleplayer: While I mainly play singleplayer, if you have a friend who also plays, you will have many hours of fun together. When playing multiplayer, the host’s DLCs are used, which is nice.

- Economic management made fun. Not as in-depth as Victoria II, but still pretty good, I enjoy it and when you don't you can put sectors in control.

- War is pretty fun lol.

There are some things I dislike about the game however:
- The AI is not the smartest. Not the economic failure that it was prior to 2.3, but still not great.
- Significant, although reduced, numbers of bugs from older content that is seemingly ignored by paradox.
- Performance can get very sluggish (although better than before) during the late-game, particularly on larger galaxies.
- Diplomacy needs a rework (which is scheduled for next update :steamhappy: ).

Thus, I believe Stellaris is a great game is definitely worth a try. Stellaris goes on sale quite regularly and as does the DLC, so make sure to buy during a sale to save money. I would advise getting the DLC in the following order: Utopia, Leviathans Story Pack (<<<< These two I feel are the most important), Synthetic Dawn, Distant Stars, Megacorps, Ancient Relcs and Apocalypse. All the other DLC are cosmetic and have no gameplay changes. I have included a summary of the contents of the DLC below.

- Utopia: Mega-structures, Ascension perks to make your empire more unique and powerful over time and hive minds.

- Leviathans: Adds various space creatures, traders, artisans and scientist enclaves and a War in Heaven between awakened empires.

- Synthetic Dawn: Adds various forms of machine empires.

- Distant Stars: Adds more space creatures (but not as many as Leviathans) and the mysterious L-Gate, leading somewhere else...

- Apocalypse: Adds collossus, basically Death Stars, Titans which are capital ships, more ascension perks, barbarian empires and the Great Khan.

- Megacorps: Adds mega corporations (new empire type), slave market, city world (eg; coruscant), more mega structures.

- Ancient relics: More flavour in events, better anomaly system, cool relics and artifacts and stuff.

I would recommend Stellaris to those who enjoy similar games such as the Sid Meier's Civilization series, other Paradox games such as Hearts of Iron IV, Victoria II, Europa Univeralis IV and Crusader Kings II, sci-fi games such as Endless space and Galactic Civilizations due to the combination of 4x, strategy and flavour and roleplaying.

Please note that Stellaris normally has better reviews, but is recently being review bombed by Chinese players who are angry at the devs for removing a couple of unused game files that were for potential, but never promised, Chinese localization.

TL:DR I like Stellaris due to depth, great flavour, interesting customisation and the ongoing Dev support.


2.2 Update Review:

The new 2.2 'Le Guin' update and the expansion 'Megacorp' were a great decision by Paradox and demonstrates that they are brave enough to rework core game components in order to improve the game. The result of the update is a much deeper economy simulation, less micromanagment, more enjoyable planet building, with more flavour and specialisation, in addition to improving the AI and smoother gameplay. Overall, a great update from dedicated developers who listen to community feedback.

Stellaris is a very interesting 4x and Strategy game. To imagine Stellaris, imagine Sid Meier's Civilization V in space, but real-time strategy, with basically every sci-fi trope mixed together and with alot more flavour. I personally enjoy Stellaris. I enjoy Stellaris because: - Flavour: From anomalies to random events, Stellaris has great, exciting flavour that makes the game very enjoyable. Leviathans and Distant Stars DLC add even more flavour. - Customisation: In Stellaris, your species is based on cosmetic appearance (more portraits available through the humanoids and plaintoids species packs), traits such as being industrious, intelliegent, wasteful, etc and on climate preference (do you like deserts, earth-like worlds, icy-balls of cold, etc). Your empire is based upon governing ethics such as pacifism-militarism, egalitarianism-authoritarian, xenophobe-xenophile, as well as having different forms of government such as democracy, dictatorship or oligarchy. Additionally, empires have civics, which allow for further customisation. With the Utopia DLC, hiveminds are unlocked, allowing for a very different playthough and with the Synthetic Dawn DLC, machine empires similar to Skynet, paperclip maximisers, robots that aim to pleasure organics. - Early game: Full of exploration, the early game is many players favourite as your empire quickly goes from a one-planet state to a much larger empire. The early game is full of various events as your empire grows. - Mid game: Full of war as unclaimed territory begins to run out and hostilities begin. Wormholes allow for connection from oneside of the galaxy to the other, changing the politcal landscape. With the Apocalypse DLC, expect a Great Khan to begin going all Genghis Khan on the galaxy. - Late game: Full of interesting developments. Megastructures (Utopia DLC) such as Niven's Ringworlds and Dyson spheres begin to be built, Ascension paths (Utopia DLC) bring your empire to greater heights such as through becoming psionic beings, Fallen empires that once ruled the galaxy but then collapsed are now vying to retake the galaxy, with you in it (Leviathans DLC: and may go to war against one another in a War in Heaven). New rare technologies are discovered and some empires may undertake a project to build a colossus aka Death Star (Apocalypse DLC). - Galactic Terrain: While the 2.0 update may have upset some players, I believe it was very beneficial to the game. 2.0 changed the galactic map so that stars are interconnected by hyperlanes, which form connections between galaxy arms and also chokepoints. These chokepoints allow for strong defense through powerful starbases with many defensive platforms. Also, some systems such as pulsars, blackholes and star systems in nebulas also have special tactical and strategic value. There are also natural wormholes which are travellable through via a mid-game tech that allow for travel from one side of the galaxy to the other and Stargates that allow for instantaneous travel from one to another through a gate network, greatly interconnecting the galaxy. - Dev Support: While Stellaris may have some bugs, the developers are actively working on sorting them out. The developers most likely plan to support the game for at least another five years, making it a long lasting investment. New content will continually be added to the game through both free updates and paid DLC. - God Emperor K'Reel reigns supreme over the xeno scum. - Well supported multiplayer and singleplayer: While I mainly play singleplayer, if you have a friend who also plays, you will have many hours of fun together. When playing multiplayer, the host’s DLCs are used, which is nice. - Economic management made fun. Not as in-depth as Victoria II, but still pretty good, I enjoy it and when you don't you can put sectors in control. - War is pretty fun lol. There are some things I dislike about the game however: - The AI is not the smartest. Not the economic failure that it was prior to 2.3, but still not great. - Significant, although reduced, numbers of bugs from older content that is seemingly ignored by paradox. - Performance can get very sluggish (although better than before) during the late-game, particularly on larger galaxies. - Diplomacy needs a rework (which is scheduled for next update :steamhappy: ). Thus, I believe Stellaris is a great game is definitely worth a try. Stellaris goes on sale quite regularly and as does the DLC, so make sure to buy during a sale to save money. I would advise getting the DLC in the following order: Utopia, Leviathans Story Pack (<<<< These two I feel are the most important), Synthetic Dawn, Distant Stars, Megacorps, Ancient Relcs and Apocalypse. All the other DLC are cosmetic and have no gameplay changes. I have included a summary of the contents of the DLC below. - Utopia: Mega-structures, Ascension perks to make your empire more unique and powerful over time and hive minds. - Leviathans: Adds various space creatures, traders, artisans and scientist enclaves and a War in Heaven between awakened empires. - Synthetic Dawn: Adds various forms of machine empires. - Distant Stars: Adds more space creatures (but not as many as Leviathans) and the mysterious L-Gate, leading somewhere else... - Apocalypse: Adds collossus, basically Death Stars, Titans which are capital ships, more ascension perks, barbarian empires and the Great Khan. - Megacorps: Adds mega corporations (new empire type), slave market, city world (eg; coruscant), more mega structures. - Ancient relics: More flavour in events, better anomaly system, cool relics and artifacts and stuff. I would recommend Stellaris to those who enjoy similar games such as the Sid Meier's Civilization series, other Paradox games such as Hearts of Iron IV, Victoria II, Europa Univeralis IV and Crusader Kings II, sci-fi games such as Endless space and Galactic Civilizations due to the combination of 4x, strategy and flavour and roleplaying. Please note that Stellaris normally has better reviews, but is recently being review bombed by Chinese players who are angry at the devs for removing a couple of unused game files that were for potential, but never promised, Chinese localization. TL:DR I like Stellaris due to depth, great flavour, interesting customisation and the ongoing Dev support. 2.2 Update Review: The new 2.2 'Le Guin' update and the expansion 'Megacorp' were a great decision by Paradox and demonstrates that they are brave enough to rework core game components in order to improve the game. The result of the update is a much deeper economy simulation, less micromanagment, more enjoyable planet building, with more flavour and specialisation, in addition to improving the AI and smoother gameplay. Overall, a great update from dedicated developers who listen to community feedback.